Chapter 496 - 468: Passage

Chapter 496: Chapter 468: Passage

Li Yuan opened his eyes after his Demonic Qi recovered to seventy percent.

He didn’t rush to leave the cave. Instead, he turned his focus to the Collapsed Core in his equipment bar, which burned with a steady, scarlet glow.

The Red Core’s effect description was clear: "Allows free passage through extreme environments such as spatial rifts, spatial tunnels, and the void, granting immunity to all spatial damage and erosion. Allows for the unrestrained creation of independent spaces."

Li Yuan raised his right hand and made a light swiping motion with his index finger.

This time, he didn’t use his Rift-splitting Slash. Instead, he simply channeled the Spiritual Power in his body, following the sense of spatial control granted by the Red Core, and tore an extremely fine rift in the void before him.

The rift was about a foot long, its edges flickering with an unstable gray light.

Li Yuan took a deep breath, stepped forward, and entered it.

His vision instantly vanished.

There was no light, no sound, no temperature.

Li Yuan was enveloped by a sense of extreme, vast nothingness. There was no solid ground beneath his feet, yet his body didn’t fall, as if suspended in an endless gray fog.

This was not a pre-existing space, but a temporary void interlayer he had propped open in the seams of the real world using the Red Core’s power.

Li Yuan stabilized himself and began to inspect his condition.

The flow of Spiritual Power in his meridians was still normal, but about thirty percent slower than in the outside world. He raised his palm, gathering a wisp of Spiritual Power at his fingertip. Condensing the Spiritual Power was not an issue, but he noticed an extremely subtle change.

The total amount of Spiritual Power in his Dantian was slowly decreasing.

It was extremely slow, like fine sand in an hourglass, almost imperceptible. But it was definitely draining away.

This void interlayer was completely devoid of spirit. There was no Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, no external energy to absorb. His Spiritual Power could only be expended, not replenished.

At the same time, the consumption of his Demonic Qi was even more pronounced. Maintaining this temporary space required a continuous supply of energy. While the drain wasn’t outrageous, a prolonged stay would eventually exhaust his Demonic Qi reserves completely.

Li Yuan closed his eyes, sensing the operation of the Traits within his body.

The passive recovery from ’Spirit Vein Nurturing’ was working. Although his nine personal Spirit Veins couldn’t absorb Spiritual Qi from the outside, the Spiritual Qi they contained was still slowly replenishing the consumption from his Dantian. It wasn’t enough to break even, but the deficit was minimal.

’But Spiritual Power isn’t the main issue. I have a Demon Qi Golden Core now. The energy maintaining this space is Demonic Qi.’

Li Yuan estimated that with his current Demonic Qi reserves, he could safely stay in this void interlayer for several days without issue.

’If I ever face a truly desperate situation, this is an extremely hidden escape route for survival.’

When he looked at the condition for making it permanent—"Maintain a space for one thousand years"—the corners of Li Yuan’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

With a thought, the gray fog in the void interlayer trembled slightly. His senses pierced through the interlayer’s boundary and touched the outside world.

The outline of the underground cave emerged in his perception. The texture of the rock walls, the humidity in the air, even the few dormant Low Tier Spirit Insects in the soil above him were all clearly discernible.

Li Yuan continued to extend the range of his perception outward.

Dozens of miles away, two powerful auras were moving farther away.

Blood Slaughter Zhenren and the Abyss Sect’s Golden Core cultivator.

The two were not moving toward the cave where Li Yuan was hiding, but were rapidly retreating in the opposite direction of the Spirit Ruins Secret Realm’s remains.

With a flicker, Li Yuan stepped out of the void interlayer.

The gray rift closed silently behind him, leaving not a single trace.

The air of the cave rushed back into his lungs, and the feeling of abundant Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi returned to his meridians. The absorption efficiency of his personal Spirit Veins immediately returned to normal, and the deficit of Spiritual Power in his Dantian began to be rapidly refilled.

Li Yuan didn’t linger. He transformed into a streak of dark Escape Light and sped toward the ruins of the Spirit Ruins Secret Realm.

「An hour later.」

The canyon was still the same canyon, but it was now completely unrecognizable.

The rock walls that had once stood on both sides of the canyon had been forcibly blasted, collapsing more than half of them into mountains of rubble. The ground was covered in a spiderweb of cracks from which wisps of residual spatial turbulence occasionally emerged, though their power was far less than before.

The entrance to the Secret Realm had completely vanished. After Li Yuan equipped the Collapsed Core, all that remained was a massive pit with slowly crumbling edges, and the wreckage of the ruins scattered over a radius of several hundred yards.

Array fragments, Spirit Stone residue, broken Array Flagpoles, and shattered Jade Pillars were everywhere.

Li Yuan landed on the edge of the pit, his gaze sweeping over the ruins.

Array Network Overview automatically activated.

A vast map of the Spiritual Power network formed in his mind. The seemingly chaotic wreckage in the ruins was rapidly classified and tagged within his perception.

Dozens of broken Array Pattern circuits emerged from beneath the rubble and dirt. Most of these Array Patterns were underlying infrastructure left over from the era of the Profound Nether Sect. Their quality was extremely high, and even after suffering the impact of the Secret Realm’s collapse, a significant portion remained in a usable state.

Li Yuan crouched down and pressed his right hand to the ground.

Spiritual Power surged into the ground, following the routes marked by his Array Network Overview. The broken, old Array Patterns reactivated under the infusion of Spiritual Power, emitting a faint Spiritual Light. The requisition ability of Array Network Overview kicked in, forcibly bringing these ownerless Array Patterns under Li Yuan’s control.

A dozen or so Array Patterns were requisitioned simultaneously, forming a temporary detection network underground.

The distribution of residual Spiritual Qi in the ruins, the location of materials, and the layout of the Earth Veins were all laid bare to his senses.

Li Yuan began to quickly scavenge.

His efficiency was extremely high. The high-value nodes marked by Array Network Overview were cleared out one by one. The High Tier Spirit Stones embedded in the Array cores, the Array Hub materials, and the mineral fragments shaken loose from the Earth Veins during the Secret Realm’s collapse were all collected into his personal space. Unfortunately, they had all been damaged during the Secret Realm’s collapse.

As he was clearing out the deepest part of the canyon, Li Yuan’s steps came to a halt.

An extremely faint pulse came from the ground beneath his feet.

’It wasn’t spatial turbulence, nor was it a remnant of an Array. It was a Spirit Vein.’

When the Secret Realm collapsed, the Spirit Vein structure buried deep underground had suffered a violent impact. Some of its channels were forcibly torn, exposing a cross-section.

Li Yuan crouched down and used his Rift-splitting Slash to cut a clean cross-section into the rock layer beneath his feet.

He saw a Fire Element Spirit Vein glowing with a dark red heat, and an earthy-yellow Earth Element Spirit Vein. Both were embedded at the end of an Earth Vein branch. Having been severed from the main vein after the Secret Realm’s collapse, they were now like trees without roots.

A moment later, the entire miniature Fire Element Spirit Vein was completely extracted from the ground and pulled into his personal space.

Next was the Earth Element Spirit Vein. The process was the same, just as smooth and seamless.

The two Spirit Veins of different elements entered his body, merging into the circulatory network with his nine existing Spirit Veins. The flow of Spiritual Qi within him grew stronger once more.

A notification popped up on the System Panel.

[Vein-Drawing Spirit Transformation (Blue) Progress: 1/5 → 3/5]

The Fire Element Spirit Vein counted as one, and the Earth Element Spirit Vein counted as one. Including the Water Element Spirit Vein he had extracted previously, he had now completed three different elemental types.

’Just two more elements to go.’

Li Yuan put away the Vein-Stripping Spirit Shuttle, cleaned out the last few valuable nodes in the ruins, and returned to a large boulder at the edge of the canyon to sit down.

His fingertips formed a hand seal.

Heavenly Derivation Divination Skill.

A sliver of his lifespan was drawn out, instantly replenishing the Heavenly Derivation Remnant Count.

Li Yuan silently asked in his mind, ’What does the Demon Sect truly want?’

A pulse of perception merged into the void.

A moment later, feedback flowed back.

No clear image appeared in his Sea of Consciousness, only a mass of extremely chaotic gray fog roiling about. Something flickered faintly within the fog, like words, or perhaps symbols, too blurry to be identified.

Li Yuan focused his Divine Sense to its absolute limit, staring intently at the flickering.

One word emerged from the depths of the fog and then dissipated.

Passage.

That was all. The feedback from the Spiritual Mechanism ended there, providing no more information.

Li Yuan released the Spell, his gaze hardening slightly.

’The divination didn’t give a specific answer.’

Li Yuan stood up and quickly took stock of all the materials he had gathered from the ruins. The High Tier Spirit Stones, Array materials, and mineral fragments added up to a considerable value. Combined with the two new Spirit Veins and the progress on his Vein-Drawing Spirit Transformation, the rewards from this trip to the Spirit Ruins had far exceeded his expectations.

The night wind swept across the ruins, kicking up a fine cloud of dust and sand.

Li Yuan concealed his aura to the absolute minimum, transformed into a streak of Escape Light, and vanished into the night.